Back East

The weekend after Thanksgiving I got to go South Carolina to see my family!  Disclaimer: I didn't bring my good camera with me, so the following pictures were all taken with my phone.  I'm grateful for it, but the quality definitely isn't close to what it would have been with my real camera.  So, just bear with me.

The official reason for the trip was that my sister Megan blessed her triplets.  And I was happy to have an excuse to make the trip!  At first I thought I would just go alone, but after some thought I realized it would be too cruel to make a trip back to SC without Cat.  She's old enough to know exactly what she would be missing, and she loves seeing our extended family there.  So I decided to take her with me.  And to make the burden on Ben (and those who were helping with babysitting in UT) a little lighter, I brought Eliza too.  Plus, she flew for free.  :-)  Ben was nearing the end of the semester so he stayed home so that he wouldn't have to miss classes, and Jack hung out with him as much as possible, and spent some time with friends when Ben was in class.

We were nice and early for our flight out of SLC so we had time to stop and play in the little kid area they have set up at the end of the terminal.  After a few minutes of playing, Cat told me that she was bored.  Translation: I'm dying to see an airplane!

She got a kick out of being in an airplane.

And she thought the moving walkways in the Chicago Midway airport were really fun too.

Love that airport.  They had these Kids Korners set up at many of the gates.  Each one had a kid-sized set of table and chairs and the Cartoon Network playing.

Eliza was so funny on this trip.  She hasn't spent a ton of time around babies, and I didn't realize how much she enjoyed all-things-baby... including the babies themselves.  She was really upset whenever we found her trying to pick a baby up by its head.  I think she wanted to yell at us, "why in the world won't you let me play with this living breathing baby doll?  They are the funnest toys EVER!"

Big kids + babies at Krispy Kreme.  You're never too young to appreciate a good doughnut!

Cat hanging out with my Opa at Krispy Kreme.

Opa's wearing costume glasses my nephews brought to KK with them, but I'm pretty sure he had some a lot like that about 50 or so years ago...

We took the big kids and Eliza to EdVenture and had a great time as always.  This is the farm area.

The grocery store.

The human body / medical area.  Eliza played dentist for a long time.  Is dental school in her future?

All of the big kids liked the veterinarian clinic the best.

I know my Mom and Megan appreciated having so many adults around to feed all of the babies.  And rock them.  And change their diapers.  And dress them.  And calm them.  Oh my goodness.  

The big kids spent as much time outside as we would allow.

Here are Cat and Colin running down the road.

Cat loves it when she gets to have a "Cousin Sleepover."  This weekend was no exception!  Play time, snacks, movies, and sleeping on a pallet on the floor.  Good times!

We missed our early morning flight on Monday morning.  (It's a long, sad story.)  I was devastated, but Mom saved the day by hanging out with us and taking us out to breakfast and to do a little shopping before she headed back to Oma and Opa and the other family who were still visiting.  The girls did great, though.  One thing that helped is that the Greenville/Spartanburg airport had this great courtyard area (perhaps just a glorified smoking area, but still).  The girls had fun running around and playing outside for a little while before we parked ourselves on the terminal for Eliza's nap.

Eliza's nap.

Cat was so great.  She worked in a workbook, read, and did other things during E's nap.

When E woke up, it was snack time.  Do you see the remnants of a white powdered doughnut on her hoodie?

We flew Southwest, so every time Cat saw a Southwest plane, she was sure it was ours.

"Mom!  That's our plane!  Can we go now?"

We finally got on the next available flight and made our way back to Midway, where we saw this familiar face on the wall.  I don't know him, but my sister Suz traveled around the world doing a Semester at Sea when she was in college.  Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was on the ship with them and Suz met him several times.  Very cool!

We were originally supposed to land in SLC around 2pm, but after missing our flight, we didn't land until 9:30.  It was a long day, but the girls were wonderful.  I was surprised and impressed at how well it all went.  We were so grateful to have been able to travel to SC to spend time with family and meet those sweet little babies!  It was such a blessing for us.  Ben and Jack did just fine without us, but we were all happy to be reunited and to try to get back into a normal routine after a big cross-country trip.

PS> Since I didn't have my good camera, I didn't try to take a lot of just family pictures.  But Suz did.  So when I get those from her, I'll share more pics of the babies and me with my family.  :-)